Are u a qualified Historian?

You are indeed knowledgable and well read.... But smart? I don’t know how accurate that is. Man, I wish I had your wealth of knowledge.

Have a little bit of fun for a moment, answer this question. If you could be any of the more popular comic book/super powered characters, who would you pick?

matt

I cut down a tree today just because I could! It screamed!

michael.a.hladik@lmco.com

Na I like Pig's, I want a pot belly pig. Tree's tend to make messes all
over so the best thing to do is cut them down and throw them away. I
will have to send you a t-shirt that I designed for tree huggers.

You got that right!!!!

Daniel Barulich wrote:

Why blame the Isle of Man for having pro-business standards? Shouldnt you be placing the blame with the individuals and corporations who decide to re-located and not with the state itself. Are you against the concept of individual freedom?

Sharon Emrick wrote:

I do not wish to impair your right to believe what you choose to believe but I respond on the chance you really are seeking the truth. But really I have never yet found one honest atheist. All I ever have found is individuals that are really angry that God?Jesus did not operate as some magic wand to fulfill their desire and prayers.

Should you really be desiring the truth regarding God and Jesus please regard that Jesus is not dead. I personally know he lived because I met him in 1976. I am neither deranged nor On drugs. I am the daughter of a rocket scientist so I assume you can imagine I was raised on evidence and yet i require no evidence that either of my parents exist and have never felt need to examine their birth certificates because they knew them. Now due to the fact that Jesus /God are not finite and human their thinking tends to be a bit different so I have had days I told him I didn't know him. But rather I hve known him more than most people I have known with the noticeable exemption of a man Moses Vegh who first introduced me to the concept of a truly personal two way relationship. He was matter a factly stating what Jesus had said that morning and I nearly laughed out loud (re: my scientific upbringing)thinking of Bill cosby and his routine on Noah when I looked at him and suddenly knew that if any person had ever heard God he had and I started listening. I was baptised and instantly lost all the crippling of my legs from a car accident along with a metabolic problem. My doctor told me he never wanted to see me again when he saw it.Several months after that I survived a fire in my bedroom that burned over and under me without burning me. I have seen new skin grow in minutes erradicating a half inch deep wound. I have seen scoliosis confirmed by x-ray and then totally unfindable even by repeated x-ray. I have seen a child drowned and unrevivable when her body floated up get up and run around when Jesus was prayed.

Now the problem for the logical is these things don't always happen but we are not dealing with an inanimate force but a living being who can and does do as he choose and not being finite doesn't see things as you do. He makes choices based on future results you don't know and for purposes you are not aware of. Usually he is not in the habit of explaining himself anymore than you do to the ant on your sidewalk.

Now none of this is proof to you and possibly makes you doubt my sanity but on the chance you are interested he is available to know, just not to fit in your boxes and probably not to fully understand. Actually how many human beings do you fully understand??? Now as relationships go it is a relationship where you can rely on never being lied to but where you aren't going to know everything and you are definately not going to be in control. Generally that has been my experience that is the main problem for most atheists but then every once in a while there could be someone who really would be willing to know the God who is and all that you need to do is start by addressing him ,"If you are really out there I really would like to know you. and if you are I'm sorry i haven't believed in you. Please show me the truth." Then you will have your own set of evidence and all these arguments will be irrelevant.

Anyway, not looking for response. My questions are not for you to answer me but yourself what are your real motivations. If you so choose you may answer especially if you enter this adventure. I always enjoys these stories but if you are trying to convince mne to become an atheist save us both time. All arguments of nonexistance are irrelevant to those who have met someone and had a relationship for some time(in my case 31 years)and I have no concern regarding the opinions of others and if there was a death penalty for saying it I would gladly still say it rather than lose this relationship. May God bless you with the courage to see things that even when you see them are hard to believe.

www.drdino.com
dont stop untill you find out

no i just randomly came accross your website, i dont know how i got there or why i wrote you. but just wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you and wants to enter your heart if only you will open the door and let him in. my life was change dramatically 180degrees once i got to know him better. your life will never be the same again.

does it hurt to check it out?

I just thought that if it was so random, maybe there was a reason why I did it? I think God is trying to talk to you though other people including me.

well ok? but tell me this what do you belive in? were will you go after you die? were did you come from?

I find it interesting that you dont seem to want to be held accountable for the work that you didn't write, but are publishing on your website. Why wont you stand behind the gavel that you are slamming Christians with by answering to the material that you choose to publish?

Honestly, I could be wrong, but it just seems like its an admission to the weakness of the arguments posited.

Maybe you should consider simply quoting the segments of the original authors work that you can, or are willing to defend, and leave the rest out.

Of coarse, if you are a devoted naturalist, then you probably don't believe in any kind of ultimate arbitration of social conduct. In that case, you are not likely to be concerned about being fair to the individuals (Christians) that you are slamming. You simply compile a force of agrument, slam people with it, and then only answer to a portion of it.

Well, thats ok. I thought you would be like most intelligent athiests i have known, in that they were ardently devoted to an open forum for discussion but i guess not.

Note to Christians: The above review was written By Kush K. He read the book. I have no intention of debating this book or reading it so stop sending me emails about it. OK?

ok. fair enough i guess.

i was just reading the news about how they finally discovered a planet that they think may be able to support life. Reading the article made me realize how ridiculous it would be to state conclusively that by no stretch of the imagination or science, could there ever be life anywhere else in the universe, except for on earth.

This caused me to reminisce about the "no absolute negative" argument made by many theists.

I'm sure that you already know what i'm talking about, but for the sake of the slight possibility that you might not know what i'm referring to, it is usually stated somewhat like this:

The basic laws of logic inhibit the possibility of an absolute negative. The classic case of this kind of logically impossible claim is typified in the position of the Athiest. That in the wide expanse of factors in the universe, and in all of the possible configurations of cosmogenisis - that there is conclusively and absolutely no possibility for the existence of a Creator or Ultimate Being (God). Here an absolute negative is posited by a finite being - and the laws of Logic refute its mathematical validity.

" It is affirming the non-existence of God. It affirms a negative. Anyone with an introductory course in philosophy recognizes that it is a logical contradiction. It would be like me saying to you, "There is no such thing as a white stone with black dots anywhere in all of the galaxies of this universe." The only way I can affirm that is if I have unlimited knowledge of this universe.

So to affirm an absolute negative is self-defeating, because what you are saying is, "I have infinite knowledge in order to say to you, 'There is nobody within finite knowledge.'" Atheism, as a system, is self-defeating. "

You probably want me to start a new thread on your forum or read an article before you are willing to discuss it via e-mail right? If so, are there any articles on your website that you could direct me to concerning your response to this argument?

thanks, i'll have to roll these around in my mind when i have time.

Actually I appreciate the Strong/Weak atheist article, not because it gives ascent to Theism or anything, but because of the honesty of the statement. Philosophy isn't a sport, and only in competitive sports do we honor the pigheaded and "strong" - and even that is kind of lame.

I guess I also appreciate it because, even though I am a Christian, I have similar views which correspond to Biblical philosophy. Not that i have a partial faith in God, or a partial devotion to the fundamental tennants of Christianity, but that i have to admit that it is possible that there may be weak areas in my own philisophical constructs and in my own ability to intellectually discern and assemble truth. Fortunately my belief in God does not rest solely upon one single argument but on the collaborative mass of evidence as a whole which outweighs the opposition.

Also, Intellectual arguments are important, but only supplemental ( albeit integral ) to the pre-emminent staple of personal spiritual revelation. If there is a God and if He is "fair", then He is just as accesable to the mentally handicapped as he is to the intellectual Genius. But thats not to say that intellectual reason and rationality is not critical for Christendom as a Whole - it is and i dont expect you to dialoge with us on the level of our individual experiences in the Spirit.

At the same time, i do not believe that any of the pillars which hold up the essential tennents of Christianity ( including the existance and supremacy of God) are weak or fallible.

for what its worth, Aaron.

Hi Martin,

I just came across your web site. You mention on your site that there are precisely zero famously atheist people who are now famously Christian. I am curious about the matter myself. If I understand the question correctly they had to be specifically an atheist (not an agnostic, Buddhist, Taoist, pantheist, monist, etc.) and already famous before conversion. Correct? What are some names of people that have been submitted to you that you have rejected? One challenge is finding people who were specifically an atheist. Alice Cooper was famous for his rejection of Christianity for many years only to later become one. But I haven't seen anything that specifically states he was an atheist, so I don't know if he meets the established criteria or not.

That seems like a key to this challenge with perhaps 1-2% of Western society identify themselves as strictly an atheist. Then they have to be famous. Then they have to convert to Christianity and still be alive. There are many famous "prodigals" but fitting to this criteria is a bit more challenging. Has anyone suggested Anne Rice the author? She is listed as an atheist turned Christian on wikipedia, that bastion of (cough) scholarly online reference material . Does she fit the criteria? Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

J.R.

A combination of compelling research, personal interest, and a good deal of excitement generated by the idea, has inspired me to seek to publish an anthology that will offer the personal accounts of gays and lesbians from around the world and from a variety of religious backgrounds.

I welcome and encourage you to visit the project's blog where you can post ideas, comments, criticism, etc.: http://gaysoffaith.blogspot.com/. Please, please, please pass this link along to anyone and everyone you know that may be interested in the project. So far, a lot of interest, both financial and content-based has been generated, but I'm looking to this blog and your responses as a way to truly get the ball rolling.

Thank you!

Michael

Hey there Martin,

Following the link to the Lottery page from Smitecam V, I wanted to point out one thing that you’re sort of wrong about when it comes to the lottery. Not about the utter folly of thinking one might dream of the winning numbers – with that, you’re right on – but rather in the calculation of never matching more than three balls in playing for fifty years.

I just used your numbers – 1 in 1033 odds of getting four balls matching. If you calculate the odds of never getting at least four balls over fifty years of playing, it comes to only about 9 percent chance. Okay, so that’s not entirely unremarkable to play every week for 50 years and never win (at least 4 matching), but it would at least be improbable.

Since you’re buying a lottery ticket this month before Smitecam V, I hope for your sakes that you’re wrong about the no gods thing, and you’ll be luckily rewarded with a large sum of cash. Unfortunately, I strongly suspect you’re right.

Yours,

Ruquay K Calloway

Mr Willett-

Throughout many of your essays and commentaries, you adamantly state that you have much disdain for liars and such. You seem to have a deep hunger for the "truth" in the various issues on your website, and you employ "logic" and "reason" to come to what you see as some kind of "truth." Your arguments - which are confounding to many who are not staunch ideologues or well-versed on the particualr subject matter - may seem "concrete" to many. Using basic principles from the era of "modernity" to establish and declare what is "true and logical" make a strong case for your athiestic and secular-humanistic views. However, in this era of "post modernism", how do you explain and reconcile your views to a generation who question the existence of "absoluteness" in truth? How do you refute the adage of "Your perception is your reality"?

Semper Fidelis!
Joel Bowling
Garner NC

um hi

im not too cool with givingf my name out so il just say im "Riot"

i have been looking at the website and its AWESOME

i have been looking for something like this for a long time

i hope you can answer 2 questions:

1. You say children cannot be members - how old would you consider an adult to be? i am a uk citizen and i think we have different rules on adult age

2. bit embarresed but......where do i sign up? :P i cant see a "join" button or anything

thanks very much - keep up the good work :)